Building management systems such as building automation systems, fire alarm systems and security systems are often installed within a premises such as commercial, residential, or governmental buildings. Examples of these buildings include offices, hospitals, warehouses, schools or universities, shopping malls, government offices, and casinos.
Building management systems usually include a panel installed on a wall in a secure location. The panel typically receives information from and/or provide control to slaved devices that are deployed around the building. The devices include sensors, controllers, and/or hybrid sensor/controllers. Via these devices, the building management systems monitor for and react to changes in the physical environment within or around the building and/or to the building itself, and control and monitor the mechanical and electrical equipment of the building such as ventilation, lighting, and power systems, in examples.
These traditional building management systems typically rely on one of two types of network communications. Some utilize low-bandwidth/high latency serial communications links to provide high reliability for communications between the deployed slave devices and the panels. The devices are also usually addressable. Communication between the panels and the devices is most often executed in a master-slave/controller-peripheral fashion, where the panel can poll the devices. In other cases, the communication between the panel and the devices is layered onto the buildings internet protocol local area network.
Building automation systems include one or more building automation control panels and devices that control and monitor the physical plant aspects of a building and aspects of business-specific electrical, computer, and mechanical systems. The physical plant typically includes heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, elevators/escalators, lighting and power systems, refrigeration and coolant systems, and air and/or water purification systems, in examples. Business-specific systems include computer systems, manufacturing systems that include various types of computer-aided machinery and test equipment, and inventory control and tracking systems, in examples.
Security systems include security panels and security devices, where the security devices detect intrusions and unauthorized access at or within the building and report indications thereof to the security panel. The security devices of the security systems include motion sensor devices, surveillance camera devices, and door controllers that communicate with the security panel over a security network. Motion sensor devices can detect intrusions and unauthorized access to the premises, and send indications of the intrusions to the security panel. The surveillance camera devices capture video data of monitored areas within the premises, and door controllers provide access to perimeter and/or internal doors, in examples.
The fire alarm systems typically include fire alarm devices deployed within the buildings that are directly wired to a fire alarm panel, although wireless systems are becoming more common. The fire alarm devices of the fire alarm systems typically include fire sensor devices and alarm notification devices. The fire sensor devices detect indications of fire such as heat, smoke, flame, and carbon monoxide, in examples, and send signals to the fire alarm panel in response. Upon receiving signals indicative of fire from the fire sensor devices, the fire alarm panel sends alarm signals to the alarm notification devices such as sirens and strobe lights to alert occupants of the building, and contacts a central station via legacy telephone systems to alert emergency responders such as fire and police, in examples. A display screen of the fire alarm panel typically provides an indication of which fire sensor device(s) triggered the generation of the alarm signals. The fire alarm devices of the fire alarm management systems can also include manual alarm signaling devices such as pull stations or panic buttons. An individual pulls a lever (of the pull station) or presses a button (of the panic button) in response to detecting fire or other emergency, and in response, the manual alarm signaling device sends a signal to the fire alarm and/or security panels. As with the fire sensor devices, upon receiving the signal indicative of fire from the manual alarm signaling device, the fire alarm panels send alarm signals to the alarm notification devices and contacts the central station.